Metallica’s Grammy performance with Lady Gaga may not have gone exactly as they envisioned – a stagehand reportedly unplugged the wire to singer James Hetfield’s microphone before the group went onstage – but as drummer Lars Ulrich tells Rolling Stone, a “slight technical snafu” couldn’t diminish the band’s enthusiasm for their temporary new singer.
What was supposed to be a Hetfield-Gaga duet for the band’s Moth Into Flame accidentally became a half-song, as Hetfield suffered complete mic failure for much of the song. While he would eventually join Lady Gaga at her mic, a visibly pissed Hetfield knocked down his mic stand at the end of the performance and threw his guitar offstage.
“There was a slight technical snafu, but that’s not really something you can do much about,” Ulrich says. “You just learn to live with that side of it. It happened to Adele last year; I guess this year it was our turn.”
The perpetually enthusiastic drummer was more keen to talk about Gaga, the “quintessential perfect fifth member of this band.” “Her voice, her attitude, her outlook on everything is so awesome,” he says. “[The performance] was so effortless and organic and she just has the spirit of hard rock and metal flowing through her veins. It comes really easy for her. There’s nothing contrived; she just has this super warm, easy energy.”
In other Metallica news, the band recently announced they will be hitting the road in support of their new album, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. The tour will begin on May 10th in Baltimore and wind down on August 16th in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Tickets go on sale this Friday (February 17th) at 10 am local time. For more information about the tour, including a complete itinerary and where to purchase tickets, please click here.
Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to announce the release of Quiet Riot’s highly anticipated new studio album, Road Rage on April 21st.
Famously known as the first heavy metal band to top the pop charts, the Los Angeles quartet became a global sensation thanks to their monstrous smash hit 1983 album, Metal Health. The band now continues their historic journey in 2017 with founding member and drummer Frankie Banali who, on this new release is joined by veteran bassist Chuck Wright (who has been in and out of Quiet Riot since 1982) and guitarist Alex Grossi (who has been handling his duties since 2004,) together with new vocalist Seann Nicols.
“I’m very excited about the release of ‘Road Rage’ on Frontiers Music Srl, which is the first official Quiet Riot release in eleven years. It contains all newly written and recorded original songs. We stayed true to the great tradition and sound of Quiet Riot while at the same time always moving musically forward,” says founding member Frankie Banali.
Frankie Banali’s history with Quiet Riot spans over 34 years and he has the distinction of being the only member of the band to have recorded on every single Quiet Riot release from 1983’s Mental Health through 2017’s Road Rage. After nearly ten years since the loss of his friend and co-founding member and bandmate Kevin DuBrow, and with careful consideration, soul searching and with the blessings and support of Kevin DuBrow’s family, Frankie has moved forward with the band to bring the fans “Road Rage.”
Musically, Road Rage offers exactly what you would expect from Quiet Riot. Arena ready hard rock with strong hooks and infectious riffs, along with maturity in the songwriting that only a band with such a history and pedigree can offer.
Quiet Riot are back stronger than ever, with the new album, Road Rage, Catch them on the road this summer.
Road Rage Track Listing:
1. Nothing But Trouble
2. Let It Go
3. Snake Charmer
4. Hey Lil’ Sister
5. I Don’t Need You Anymore
6. Sledge Hammer
7. Never You Mind
8. Empty Rooms
9. Dirty Money
10. The Seeker
11. Road Rage
Metallica today announced their WorldWired 2017 North American tour in support of their new album Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. The WorldWired 2017 tour is produced by Live Nation. The tour will crisscross its way across North America into the summer, marking the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees and Grammy® Award winning band’s first proper North American tour since 2009. Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat will be the main support acts for the tour run. See below for a list of all confirmed dates.
Presale tickets will be available to Legacy Fan Club members beginning on Tuesday, February 14th at 9:00 AM local time, with presale tickets available to all Met Club members beginning on Tuesday, February 14th at 11:00 AM local time. Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning this Friday, February 17th at 10:00 AM local time. Each ticket purchased will come with a copy of the Hardwired…To Self-Destruct album, available as a physical CD or a digital download. Visit metallica.com for complete ticket info.
Citi is the official credit card of the WorldWired 2017 North American Tour. Citi cardmembers can take advantage of a special presale opportunity for all show dates in the U.S. beginning on Tuesday, February 14th at 11:00 AM local time. For additional details, visit citiprivatepass.com.
Every ticket purchased through official outlets includes your choice of a standard physical or standard digital copy of Hardwired…To Self-Destruct. Fans should expect to receive information from Warner Music Artist Services on how to redeem their albums within 14 business days after their purchase. Full details of how you can gift the album, should you have already purchased, will be given on the redemption page.
Metallica has partnered with CID Entertainment to offer four options of special enhanced experiences on this tour, including premium tickets and amenities, including: early access to the venue, a visit to the ‘Memory Remains’ exhibit of memorabilia, and meet and greets. For full package details, visit cidentertainment.com/events/metallica-tour-2017/.
Additionally, Metallica has announced the formation of their All Within My Hands Foundation, which will raise funds to support a cross-section of national, local and Bay Area charities that the individual band members support, along with continuing to donate to music education programs and local food banks. Through a collaboration with Crowdrise, the band encourages fans to make a donation when purchasing tickets to the upcoming shows. For more information, visit crowdrise.com/metallica/.
WorldWired 2017 North American tour dates:
May 10 – Baltimore, MD – M&T Bank Stadium*^
May 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Lincoln Financial Field*^
May 14 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium*^
May 17 – Uniondale, NY – The New Coliseum^
May 19 – Boston, MA – Gillette Stadium ^
May 21 – Columbus, OH – Rock On The Range Festival (SOLD OUT)
June 4 – St. Louis, MO – Busch Stadium^
June 7 – Denver, CO – Sports Authority Field*^
June 11 – Houston, TX – NRG Stadium*^
June 14 – San Antonio, TX – Alamodome*
June 16 – Dallas, TX – AT&T Stadium*
June 18 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field*
July 5 – Orlando, FL – Camping World Stadium*^
July 7 – Miami, FL – Hard Rock Stadium*^
July 9 – Atlanta, GA – SunTrust Park*^
July 12 – Detroit, MI – Comercia Park*^
July 14 – Quebec City, QC– Festival D’Ete
July 16 – Toronto, ON – Rogers Centre*^
July 19 – Montreal, QB – Parc Jean-Drapeau*^
July 29 – Los Angeles, CA – Rose Bowl*+
August 4 – Phoenix, AZ – University of Phoenix Stadium*+
August 6 – San Diego, CA – Petco Park*+
August 9 – Seattle, WA – CenturyLink Field*+
August 14 – Vancouver, BC – BC Place*+
August 16 – Edmonton, AB – Commonwealth Stadium*+
Hardwired…To Self-Destruct was released on November 18th on Metallica’s own Blackened Recordings record label and debuted at Number One around the world, selling over 800,000 copies worldwide in its first week. The album was produced by Greg Fidelman with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, and is available in various configurations at metallica.com.
Richie Kotzen has never been an artist known for playing by the rules. And for this ever-adventurous triple-threat songwriter/guitarist/vocalist, that meant putting on the brakes after a nonstop flurry of band-related activity in order to refuel the creative process for the ten heartfelt and hard-hitting songs that comprise his new, vibrant 21st solo album, Salting Earth, out April 14th through his own custom label, Headroom-Inc.
Kotzen tossed convention on its ear by actually taking one step back in order to move two steps forward. “It’s something I really needed to do in order to reset myself,” he explains.
Kotzen’s “charge to recharge” was officially put into play following the mega-success of the 2015–16 tour behind his band The Winery Dogs’ sophomore effort, the oh-so-appropriately named Hot Streak. And the man’s reset manifesto wound up hitting all the right buttons too. The proof is on display deep within the grooves of Salting Earth, which veers from the balls-out, heads-up declaration of the opening track and first single, End Of Earth, to the burning-sky harmonic thrust of Thunder to the Prince-like funk-jazz swing of This Is Life to the acoustified take-me-as-I-am self-reflection of the album’s final song, Grammy.
The majority of Salting Earth is the result of Kotzen’s one-man production machine, with the exception of Julia Lage adding background vocals to Make It Easy, a tasty, sing-along groove stew. “It’s really not deliberate when the record is finished and suddenly I’m the only performer on it,” Kotzen admits. “It actually comes out of my process of writing and documenting my ideas. It started back in the late ’80s when I had a makeshift studio in my parents’ barn. I grew up fairly isolated, and I soon realized in order to get this music out of my head and onto a format where I could listen to it, I’d have to figure out how to do it alone.”
Kotzen’s previous solo release, 2015’s diverse, far-reaching Cannibals, was a well-received hit among his core fan base, and Salting Earth cuts like the aforementioned End Of Earth, Thunder and Divine Power all showcase the scorching guitar solos and soaring vocals that one would expect from a Kotzen solo album. That said, there’s also quite a vulnerable side on display here that’s perhaps best demonstrated in the stripped-down approach to the album’s closing salvo, Grammy.
“That song came to me in the oddest way at the most inconvenient time,” he reveals of the track that can be filed in the “first thought, best thought” category. One night when he was home alone, “I basically woke myself up with the chorus melody in my head, and in my haze, I knew that if I didn’t at least record the idea, it would be forever lost. I ended up programming a simple drum beat, and then recorded the acoustic guitar. The lyrics pretty much wrote themselves. By six in the morning, the song was finished. I was going to do more overdubs, but I kept playing it over and over, and I just felt like there was something so personal coming out of the speakers. By messing with it, I’d likely destroy the magic — so I left it as it is.”
Bringing Salting Earth live to the people is Kotzen’s next holy mission. “My real outlet is touring — playing live as much as I can, wherever I can, whenever I can,” he says enthusiastically. “It’s one of the few things you can’t copy, steal, or download. It’s an engaging human experience that’s a give-and-take between both the performer and the audience, and there is nothing else like it on this earth.”
Kotzen will launch his Salting Earth tour on April 21st at The Canyon club in Agoura Hills, California. He and his band are planning to tour extensively throughout the U.S. and continue their journey into Mexico, South America, and Europe.
Salting Earth track listing:
1. End Of Earth
2. Thunder
3. Divine Power
4. I’ve Got You
5. My Rock
6. This Is Life
7. Make It Easy
8. Meds
9. Cannon Ball
10. Grammy (listen below)
Metallica frontman James Hetfield spoke with Newsweek‘s Jeff Perlah. Highlights from the interview appear below.
Newsweek: Hardwired[…to Self-Destruct] pays tribute to some of the giants of metal. The deluxe edition features Ronnie Rising Medley, which was previously available on 2014’s Ronnie James Dio–This Is Your Life tribute album. The record also features Murder One, a song about Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister.
James Hetfield: We all have our mentors, and we need them, or at least I do. I need someone who I’m lookin’ up to, to either try and chase or learn from. We were asked by Dio’s wife, Wendy, to contribute to [This Is Your Life]. And that was kind of a no-brainer. We’re no strangers to doing covers. So the Ronnie Rising Medley was kind of a combination of all the good stuff we loved from Dio. It’s great to challenge myself with singing stuff like that. It helps me grow. And it also helps me push limits that I think I’m stuck in.
Lemmy in particular was an icon, sort of a godfather for people who love heavy metal. He was the captain of the ship. And we all felt he was immortal [laughs], doing the hard, hard, hard livin’ for such a long time on the road, and just really goin’ for it [laughs]. We knew it would come to an end at some point. But we really didn’t expect it. There’s certainly no Metallica without a Motörhead.
We would get to jam with Lemmy. He was a very friendly guy. We covered quite a few of their songs. You know, Motörhead never made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is a shame. But he did win a Grammy for a song called Whiplash that we had recorded on Kill ’Em All. We were trying to write a Motörhead song. He covered our song [for Motörhead’s 2006 album, Kiss of Death] that was kind inspired by him, and he wins a Grammy for it. That is very cool.
Newsweek: Can you talk about some of your influences as a guitarist?
James Hetfield: So guitar influences for me—really percussive. As I mentioned earlier, I’d love to play drums too [laughs], you know? What I do is play drums on the guitar. I’m very rhythmic, and obviously I’m a rhythm guitar player, so there’s some great rhythm guitar players out there: Malcolm Young [of AC/DC] obviously. [Scorpions founding member] Rudolf Schenker and I would say Johnny Ramone had just a great right hand: a lot of down picking, da-da-da-da [he sings a guitar down-picking part], really machine-like. I just gravitated toward that. And obviously the musicality of a riff: Somebody like a Tony Iommi, who is the ultimate riff master in my opinion—so a combination of heavy and great melodies within the riffs.
Newsweek: Looking way back, the band nailed four landmark albums, including Master of Puppets, in only five years.
James Hetfield: When you’re young and got nothing else to do and that is your life, that makes sense. As we get older, there is other things going on. Back then, there was touring, but it was not as intense as it became post-Black Album. Being on tour for three years didn’t happen back then, so we were basically going back into the studio. And also no families to raise or to be around, wanting to be there for your kids and watch them grow. And it is amazing that in the early ’80s, mid-’80s and late ’80s, there was a lot of great metal happening, not from just us and the other Big Four [Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth] but lots of other bands that were very inspired by the movement.
There were a lot of bands from the Bay Area. Exodus was a great band, we loved watching them, we did quite a few shows with them; the band in Seattle called Metal Church. But it was really while growing up in L.A., us and Slayer for sure. Who can be heavier, who can be faster? And it was a very great, and healthy, competition.
Newsweek: Do you have a favorite early Metallica album?
James Hetfield: I like Ride the Lightning a lot because I think that was the first time we got to be a part of it. Kill ’Em All, obviously we recorded and wrote all the songs for it, and they were basically songs from the first couple of years we had been playing in the clubs. So we just went in and recorded them, but we weren’t allowed to be in there for the mix or anything. With Ride the Lightning, there was no manager telling us, “Stay away from this studio” [laughs]. We were really integrated into it, and we were able to help with the sounds, help with the ideas and all that stuff.
Newsweek: Speaking of playing live, the first time you performed the Hardwired song Moth Into Flame was at Webster Hall in New York City on September 27th, 2016, the 30th anniversary of Cliff’s death [original Metallica bassist Cliff Burton]. How does Cliff’s work remain a key part of your musical life?
James Hetfield: Well, he planted a harmony seed in me that I’ve never forgotten. He was a big, big Thin Lizzy fan. We were pretty—and I hate to use the word—bombastic, we were a little punk rock, and he brought in a little more musicality. He was the one that went to junior college and studied musical theory, and he loved all kinds of different music. Obviously, his bass playing, his unique sound, continues to live in the fans and live in us. So Robert [Trujillo] is respectful of him. And Robert is his own amazing player.
Iconic guitarist George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob, KXM) was a guest on Eddie’s Sirius/XM show, Trunk Nation where he revealed that there is a possibility that Dokken will reunite again for additional live appearances.
He tells Eddie, (via blabbermouth.net, “Well, it’s never completely out of the question. We are talking about doing something in 2018. I would love for it to happen.”‘
He added that the band’s brief 2016 reunion “went well”, but admitted that “it wasn’t without its challenges.” He explained, “It’s an interesting band. And I say ‘interesting’ in a… My wife’s not a great cook. I mean, her food’s interesting. I don’t wanna insult her. I love her. She’s trying hard. But the band definitely has an undeniable thing that people love, and we created some good music, and to see the fans’ reaction was really great, and we did good business.”
He continued, “I thought it worked on most levels. So I would like to continue to do more shows with the original Dokken.”
When pressed about the possible future dates, Lynch said, “Well, I can’t talk about it, but there is a little bit of something going on.”
A new Dokken concert DVD focusing on the band’s reunion tour is tentatively due before the end of the year. It will feature footage from two of the Japanese shows — including Tokyo — as well as the band’s very first comeback gig, which was held on September 30th, 2016 at Badlands Pawn Guns Gold And Rock ‘N’ Roll in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
In the interim, Lynch can be heard on the forthcoming KMX album, Scatterbrain, due March 17th through Rat Pak records. Listen to the title track here and Breakouthere.
 was a guest on Eddie's Sirius/XM show, Trunk Nation where he revealed that there is a possibility that Dokken will reunite again for additional ... )
